USC Unveils New Business School Home

USC has officially debuted the new, state-of-the-art building that houses its Marshall School of Business.

USC President C. L. Max Nikias and James Ellis, dean of the Marshall school, hosted a special ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Jill and Frank Fertitta Hall, which has opened to students this semester.

The 104,000-square-foot building’s fourth and fifth floors are occupied by the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.

Greif, founder and chief executive of downtown investment banking firm Greif & Co., was on hand for the occasion along with Donald Friese, the longtime owner of glass products company CR Laurence that sold in 2015 for $1.3 billion; and USC trustee Tamara Hughes Gustavson, the largest shareholder of Glendale’s Public Storage Co., among others.

The building, which is built to look like a cathedral, was designed by AC Martin. Fertitta Hall was engineered specifically with millennials in mind, with classrooms and break-out areas featuring interactive technology so that professors are able to live-stream classes or invite guest speakers to a web conference.

As a sign of Southern California culture, most classrooms come equipped with skateboard racks.

Frank Fertitta, a 1984 graduate of USC Marshall, is chairman and chief executive officer of Las Vegas-based Fertitta Entertainment, a resort and casino development and management company. Fertitta’s firm Zuffa is also the former owner and operator of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which was purchased by a consortium of investors at WME-IMG in July for $4 billion.